This site requries that you enable JavaScript in your browser.
Most features of this site simply will not work without a modern JavaScript-enabled web browser.
Try visiting our site in one of the following browsers with JavaScript enabled:Firefox,
Safari,
or Opera

Program Information

Richard Stallman: Copyright vs Community in the Age of Computer Networks

Summary: Richard Stallman spoke in Sheffield on 5th March 2011 on Copyright vs Community in the Age of Computer Networks.

Credits:

Notes: The talk was advertised with the following text:

Richard Stallman, the American founder of the GNU / Linux computer operating system and the Free Software movement, presents a Sheffield lecture as part of his prestigious 2011 European Tour. Stallman has received the ACM Grace Hopper Award, a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Pioneer Award, the Takeda Social/Economic Betterment award, and several honorary doctorates and stuff.

Copyright developed in the age of the printing press and was designed to fit with the system of centralized copying imposed by this technology. But, the copyright system does not fit well with computer networks, and only Draconian punishments can enforce it. The global corporations that profit from copyright are lobbying for Draconian punishments, and to increase their copyright powers, while suppressing public access to technology. But if we seriously hope to serve the only legitimate purpose of copyright, to promote progress for the benefit of the public, then we must make changes in the other direction.

Richard Stallman launched the development of the GNU operating system (see http://www.gnu.org/) in 1984. GNU is free software - everyone has the freedom to copy it and redistribute it, as well as to make changes, either large or small. The GNU/Linux system, basically the GNU operating system with Linux added, is used on tens of millions of computers today.